Jasper Tudor: Life Story

Published13th March 2016

Share this article

Chapter
11
: Fugitive

During the period 1463 to 1470, Jasper’s exact whereabouts are difficult to pin down. He seems to have travelled between France, Bar, Brittany and Scotland, drumming up support for his half-brother and nephew. This activity led Edward IV to put pressure on Louis XI to extradite him. Louis would not go that far, but gave Jasper 500 livres tournois to depart his kingdom for Scotland in 1463.

The following May, Louis furnished Jasper with a letter of recommendation for Duke François II of Brittany, requesting the Duke to help Jasper with troops and supplies to effect an invasion of Wales. François complied with Louis’s request, but was then astonished to receive news from the French King that Louis was displeased about the aid granted to Jasper.

The position of
France’s neighbours, Brittany and Burgundy, is key to understanding the
dynamics of the aid that was given at different times to both Lancaster and
York. Henry VI was widely accepted as the legitimate King, and he initially had
support from France, as the marriage alliance between Henry and Marguerite had
been intended to end the Hundred Years’ War. The Lancastrians had also been
closely allied to Burgundy during the first half of the century. Charles of
Burgundy, like Henry VI, was a great-grandson of John of Gaunt, and his aunt,
Anne, had been married to Henry V’s brother, John, Duke of Bedford. Brittany
had been allied to the Lancastrian house through the marriage of Joanna of Navarre,
grandmother of the current duke, to Henry IV.

However, France was looking to annex both Burgundy and Brittany. Charles of Burgundy had only a daughter, and, in the early 1460s, Francois of Brittany had no children at all. Thus, both Burgundy and Brittany sought allies to protect them from French incursions, whilst not wishing to provoke France into attack.

There are no
definite records of where Jasper went in March 1464 with the money that Duke
Francois had given him. It is possible that he landed in Wales, probably at
Harlech, and he may have stayed at a place called Mostyn Hall.

Despite the
apparent victory of Edward IV, all was not well in the Yorkist camp. Edward
himself was a talented general, popular both with the public and with most of
the nobility, once they had resigned themselves to the change of regime, which
most did, following Towton. But he was becoming increasingly unpopular with the
Earl of Warwick and his own brother, George, Duke of Clarence.

Warwick and
Clarence felt they had not been sufficiently rewarded by Edward and Warwick was
particularly displeased when his negotiations for Edward’s marriage to Louis XI
sister-in-law, Bona of Savoy, collapsed on the news that Edward had already
married in secret. Warwick felt himself to be a laughingstock – not an
experience that such a proud man welcomed.

By 1468 Edward was
facing dissatisfaction at home from his former supporters and had also provoked
Louis XI through his alliances with Brittany and Burgundy. In 1468, Charles of
Burgundy had married Margaret of York, Edward IV’s sister. This did not
immediately put Charles into the Yorkist camp, but it kept his options open,
and gave him a potential ally against Louis XI.

In retaliation, on
1st June 1468, Louis furnished Jasper with three ships and nearly 300
livres tournois for an expedition to Wales. Obviously this was not sufficient
for a full-scale invasion but was probably intended as reconnaissance trip.
It’s likely that Jasper landed somewhere near Harlech Castle. There were still
plenty of Lancastrians in Wales and Jasper soon formed an army of around 2,000
men which he led to Denbigh. He did not attempt, on this occasion, to retake
the castle but instead burned the town. He followed this up by holding several
legal sessions in the name of King Henry – hoping to demonstrate that Henry was
the legitimate King.

These actions of
Jasper’s stirred Edward IV to even greater efforts to reduce Harlech. Herbert
and his kinsman, Ferrers, as Sir Walter Devereux was now known, raised as many as
10,000 men in the Marches and ravaged the whole of Nantconwy, an area of North
Wales still largely Lancastrian. A number of Jasper’s men were captured and
Herbert’s men settled down in front of Harlech to besiege it with Jasper
perhaps inside.

The castle eventually fell. The majority of the garrison was spared. Jasper himself escaped again allegedly disguising himself as a peasant carrying a bale of straw (Ed. The man seems to have been a close relative of Houdini!). Herbert was rewarded on 8th September 1468 by the grant of Jasper’s title of Earl of Pembroke.